Principal Investigator(s):Piquero, Alex R., University of Florida; Brame, Robert, University of South Carolina; Fagan, Jeffrey, Columbia University; Moffitt, Terrie E., University of Wisconsin, and Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London

Summary:

Using data from five Spouse Assault Replication Program
(SARP) sites, this study examined the extent to which domestic
violence offenders exhibit a specialized proclivity toward violence
and the extent to which attack severity escalates, de-escalates, or
stays about the same over time. The specialization question was
examined using official arrest records from the Charlotte, North
Carolina, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Omaha,
Nebraska sites. Escalation was examined using... (more info)

Using data from five Spouse Assault Replication Program
(SARP) sites, this study examined the extent to which domestic
violence offenders exhibit a specialized proclivity toward violence
and the extent to which attack severity escalates, de-escalates, or
stays about the same over time. The specialization question was
examined using official arrest records from the Charlotte, North
Carolina, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Omaha,
Nebraska sites. Escalation was examined using victim interview data
from the Charlotte, Milwaukee, Omaha, and Miami-Dada, Florida
sites. This collection consists of 18 SAS setup files used to recode
the variables from the original datasets, organized in five groups, by
city of each data collection site. This collection does not contain
the original data files, themselves.

Methodology

Study Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to examine the
extent to which domestic violence offenders exhibit a specialized
proclivity toward violence and the extent to which attack severity
escalates, de-escalates, or stays about the same over time.

Study Design:
In order to examine the issues of specialization
and escalation in domestic violence offenders, this study used data
from the Spouse Assault Replication Program (SARP). The SARP funded
replications of the Minneapolis, Minnesota domestic violence
experiment (SPECIFIC DETERRENT EFFECTS OF ARREST FOR DOMESTIC ASSAULT:
MINNEAPOLIS, 1981-1982 [ICPSR 8250]) in six other sites in
geographically diverse regions around the United States including
Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Colorado Springs,
Colorado, Miami-Dade, Florida, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Omaha
Nebraska. The SARP data contain information on arrest activity prior
to the incident in which the offender entered the experiment. This
data divided the types of offenses into property, violent, and other
crimes and allowed examination of whether individuals entering the
experiments exhibit specialization in violence. The SARP data also
contain detailed information from victim interviews on the nature of
the violence occurring at the presenting incident as well as the nature
of violence occurring at subsequent points in time after the presenting
incident. These data allow the examination of the extent to which the
severity of offenders' attacks against the same victim increased,
decreased, or stayed the same over time. The current study examines
the specialization question using official arrest data from the
Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Milwaukee, and Omaha sites. Detailed
information on prior arrest records of the domestic violence suspect
in the Miami-Dade study was not available so it is not included in
this part of the study. The escalation question is examined using
victim interview data from the Charlotte, Miami-Dade, Milwaukee, and
Omaha sites. Since the Colorado Springs interview were conducted in a
different manner than the interviews in the other sites, it is not
included in this part of the study. The replication project in
Atlanta, Georgia was not completed and is not included in this study.